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Let 3rd party publishers have Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Greyhawk, and other locations. Give 5th edition a new setting, a setting of its own. That setting" 13th century Earth.

Why 13th century Earth?

Coherency. Frankly, next to M.A.R. Barker and E. Gary Gygax Ed Greenwood has no sense of history or culture. FR is a misorganized mess. Thirteenth century Earth would give the game a location with history and cultural interplay. We're talking about tons of reference works, which includes creatures from folklore and tons of plot hooks. It also means the necessity to focus on what was available in history and legend, instead of constantly devising meaningless new bling to attract players. Not more stuff, interesting stuff. Who says the goblins of China have to be like the goblins of France?

Can you send me a reference for the FR being the default setting for 5e? I'm confident you're correct, but I hadn't heard anything official.

FR is a hugely popular setting in terms of the books and video games, and has been since 2e. It makes sense that FR will be at the top of the list for campaign settings. I prefer to make my own, so I'm not very concerned about what they choose for the default setting.

Having said that, it would be nice for people who don't create their own settings to have a change of pace.

"I don't like X, they should remove it."
"I like X, they should keep it."
"They should replace X with Y."
"Anybody that likes X is dumb. Y is better."
"Why don't they include both X and Y."
"Yeah, everybody can be happy then!"
"But I don't like X, they should remove it."
"X really needs to be replaced with Y."
"But they can include both X and Y."
"But I don't like X, they need to remove it."
"Remove X, I don't like it."
Repeat.
Obstinance?

56790678 wrote:

Until you've had an in-law tell you your choice of game was stupid, and just Warcraft on paper, and dumbed down for dumber players who can't handle a real RPG, you haven't lived.
You haven't lived.

56902498 wrote:

Lady and gentlemen.... I present to you the Edition War without Contrition, the War of the Web, the Mighty Match-up!
We're using standard edition war rules. No posts of substance. Do not read the other person's posts with comprehension. Make frequent comparison to video games, MMOs, and CCGs. Use the words "fallacy" and "straw man", incorrectly and often. Passive aggressiveness gets you extra points and asking misleading and inflammatory questions is mandatory. If you're getting tired, just declare victory and leave the thread. Wait for the buzzer... and....
One, two, three, four, I declare Edition War
Five, six, seven eight, I use the web to
Go!

57062508 wrote:

D&D should not return to the days of blindfolding the DM and players. No tips on encounter power? No mention of expected party roles? No true meaning of level due to different level charts or tiered classes? Please, let's not sacrifice clear, helpful rules guidelines in favour of catering to the delicate sensibilities of the few who have problems with the ascetics of anything other than what they are familiar with.

56760448 wrote:

Just a quick note on the MMORPG as an insult comparison...
MMORPGs, raking in money by the dumptruck full. Many options, tons of fans across many audiences, massive resources allocated to development.
TTRPGs, dying product. Squeaking out an existence that relys on low cost. Fans fit primarily into a few small demographics. R&D budgets small, often rushed to market and patched after deployment.
You're not really making much of an argument when you compare something to a MMORPG and assume people think that means bad. Lets face it, they make the money, have the audience and the budget. We here on this board are fans of TTRPGs but lets not try to pretend none of us play MMORPGs.

90571711 wrote:

Adding options at the system level is good.
Adding options at the table level is hard.
Removing options at the system level is bad.
Removing options at the table level is easy.
This is not complicated.

57333888 wrote:

112760109 wrote:

56902838 wrote:

Something like Tactical Shift is more magical than martial healing.

Telling someone to move over a few feet is magical now? :|
I weep for this generation.

Given the laziness and morbid obsesity amongst D&Ders, being able to convince someone to get on their feet, do some heavy exercise, and use their words to make them be healthier must seem magical.

158710691 wrote:

D&D definitely improves mental health;
Just as long as you stay away from these forums ;)

You said "Let 3rd party publishers have Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Greyhawk, and other locations. Give 5th edition a new setting, a setting of its own". That implies that WotC would specify the new default setting.

Off-topic: they could probably find room somewhere in the Realms for a less detailed, less restricted Vale of some sort.

fwiw: I too disliked the Realms for decades, before I discovered that it had effectively become the default D&D setting.

I still think the best way to go is for a "skeleton base settings" as default, basically some general information, maybe some not as detailed cosmology and planes description and some general descriptions of how things works on the world...but the rest up to the DM and players to basically them it their own (and also being able to insert some stuff from other settings into it)

As a big D20 Modern/Masque of the Red Death/other RPGs with an Earthy setting, I would love a Dark Age Earth (with or without fantasy elements) setting! It helps that I love Arthurian Legend and Chivalric Romance, classic Sword and Sorcery. Now, I don't know if this would be the best idea for a new setting because it wouldn't be too hard to refluff the content in Birthright or Greyhawk to fit that description. For a new setting, Wizards has to strive for something unique, appealing, not really seen before that can appeal to old and new players alike. While they tried this with the Vale, it felt like a bunch of haphazardly mish-mashed elements of previous settings that didn't appeal in the slightest. I'm talking a can of fresh air, like the introduction of Eberron! But, at the same time, there are so many settings that many haven't heard or played before.

As for a "default setting", I'd prefer that there is no default. Now, I LOOOOOVE the Realms (Well, pre-spellplague) but I really don't want it to be an assumed default. In my opinion, core settings plague everything else. We've seen it with 3.5 with greyhawk-esque content appearing everywhere as an assumption and then in 4.0 with Points of Light shoehorning into every setting (I'm still less than happy about that.) While it can attract new people to a setting they probably wouldn't buy otherwise, it has a less than helpful tendency to cause waves of backlash for fandoms devoted to said settings. (Hell hath no fury like the Forgotten Realms fandom!)

An undead spectre occasionally returning to remind the fandom of its grim existence.